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Attention Sorosophobes/philes: We’ve hit the big time, y’all.

OMG OMG! You’ll never believe this — like, moments after typing up the final entry in my liveblog of the Avaaz.ca campaign launch, who should appear in front of me but a friendly neighbourbood John Baird campaign staffer, bearing a stack of freshly printed press releases bearing the fabulously evocative headline: “SHADOWY FOREIGN ORGANIZATION ATTEMPTING TO INFLUENCE CANADIAN ELECTION” – which would be awesome enough all on its own, but the subhead made it even better: Apparently – their words, not mine – a “Wall Street Billionaire” is “bankrolling [the] campaign”.

What Wall Street Billionaire might that be? Oh, my ears and whiskers, you’ll never guess — the man whose very existence can spark six American C/conservative conspiracy theories before breakfast: George Soros. Soros! We’ve finally arrived on the world stage, and can take our seat before the One World Government New World Order Star Chamber.

Except — wait, why does this release keep using the words “apparently” and “supposedly” to describe Soros involvement with Avaaz? And why doesn’t it offer any evidence to back up the claim that sinister Sorosian dollars are funding the group – or its Canadian arm – and states only that it is is “supposedly bankrolled” through MoveOn.org? I mean, even a citation from Wikipedia would be better than nothing, right? But it doesn’t even include one of those – although it does remind us that Soros made more than a billion dollars when he “broke the Bank of England” in 1992.

Anyway, the Baird campaign has filed an official complaint with Elections Canada over the involvement of this “foreign organization”, and is seeking an injunction to prevent Avaaz.ca from launching its ad campaign targeting Baird and others. (Isn’t that a lot like the ‘gag order’ on third parties that a certain former National Citizens Coalition president fought all the way to the Supreme Court?) ITQ will keep y’all posted on any and all developments.

How Liberal of you to insinuate that Harper has double standards because he expects the left to play by the same rules that the right are forced to.

Good point.

It would be much better to insinuate that Harper has double standards because, after a decade of fustigating against those mean ol’ unelected Librul judges overturning laws enacted by the elected Parliament (or House of Commons, anyway) by invoking the Stupid Charter, Stephen Harper went and, emmm, asked those mean ol’ unelected Librul judges to overturn laws enacted by the elected Parliament (or House of Commons, anyway) by invoking the Stupid Charter.

So intelligent Ti-Guy. Wow. Your ability to call people names is bloody brilliant. Where did you learn to do that?

I am not, nor have ever been, a member of any political party. I’m just disgusted by the gutter politics, partisanship, gotcha reporting, and general level of ignorance that the electorate displays in this country.

EC has a history of not knowing their head from their a$$. Ignore it if it makes you feel better, but sooner or later, somebody needs to question the competency of this group.

Two Cents: the CPC signs didn’t have an authorization on them. They were illegal. And since CP moved a story on it, I’d hardly say it was ignored by the press…

“Nobody knew where (the signs) were from because there did not appear to be any authorized official agent,” Kane said. “A call was made to Elections Canada and Elections Canada told them to take them down.”

I think the saddest moment I can remember in politics in the last decade or so was STephen Harper blaming Elections Canada for the in and out investigations. Reading his statement I realized this wasn’t just a hail mary desperation ploy, I came to understand this fool actually BELIEVED the ridiculous spin he was crafting. That was when I realized that even if they clean up their policy a bit, they’re still the same old bat-crazy reformers.

Do you have any proof that it’s Con supporters cutting brake lines? Why aren’t you suspicious of dippers or greens. Its been my experience lefties are the believers of ‘the personal is political’ though I doubt it’s any party’s supporters.

Trent: It’s called “workin’ the ref.” It’s a strategy, but that’s all it is.

(And it looks like Kady ain’t likely to be influenced by it, either.)

Mike: Remember, a lot of conservatives, like Republicans, are zealots. They will do anything, say anything, to aid the cause. Lying, cheating, stealing, all of it is in the service of A Greater Truth.

That doesn’t mean that belief is bad. Belief is GOOD. The Liberals’ biggest flaw is that too many reflexively hug an illusory center, instead of re-engaging with their own beliefs as small-l liberals. But there are limits.

The Liberals’ biggest flaw is that too many reflexively hug an illusory center, instead of re-engaging with their own beliefs as small-l liberals. But there are limits.

I’d have to agree with that. There was a period during which Liberals such as myself, not terribly enamoured with politics, were lulled into a false sense of security that small-l liberals in authority (in academia, in business and in the media) knew what they were talking about. But after decades of viewing everything as essentially political, they lost the ability to examine reality.

There is no “centre;” there are simply issues the require evidence-based examination and analysis, after which approaches are proposed and are supported depending what one’s values are: liberal or conservative or libertarian or socialist. But there really isn’t any “centre.”

What there is horse-trading and compromise, but that’s something that should only pre-occupy politicians in Parliament, not citizens.

jwl… not sure if Austin So is saying CPC supporters are cutting the brake lines, just that the brake lines story is much more deserving of attention.

Today I’m mostly hearing about the economy and efects, which generally pushses all other things off the table, legitimate or otherwise.

The people cutting the brake lines are likely supproters of one party and haters of the Liberals, but one can be sure that the party they support DOESN’T support them and would distance themselves as far away from those people as possible. If they appeared to have any official connection to the party beyond membership or a donation, I’m sure they’d be fired, denounced, ridiculed and the party in question would be apologizing hugely.

But I highly doubt such troglodytes would be members of a party let alone donate or be a volunteer.

I left this earlier, but apparently Macleans is picky about leaving links in messages. So, all I’ll say is if you look at the Avaaz “Stop Harper” page, you’ll see they’ve ALREADY raised 103 000$.

So they don’t need luck – just a lot of people who dislike Harper and the direction he’s taking us on the environment – and I’d say they’ve found that. (expanded their goal to reach the aforementioned 150 grand limit as well).

Little disclaimer at the bottom of their funding bar says: “Please note: Donations accepted from Canadian citizens only. Donations over $200 are publicly disclosed to Elections Canada.”

The only sheeple around here are the ConBots. Remember how the Conservatives were fleeced during the disastrous Israel-Hezbollah war? When the faithful were being asked to donate on the strength of Harper’s “moral clarity?”

Commented on the prior thread, before seeing ITQ’s own post on this very point, so here goes again:

Hmm, an internationally-based organization seeking to interfere with the democratic process in Canada. Not classy. Not illegal in my books (although given all the stupid restrictions on free speech the Canada Elections Act does impose on our own citizens, one wonders whether this should be so tolerated), but most certainly not classy.

I couldn’t care less whether it was a billionaire or a billion hippies behind it, it is most certainly NOT neighbourly to influence a democratic country’s elections. It stinks.

Anyone else find the irony in Baird’s campaign website sporting a picture of Harper & Baird against a hazy & polluted urban skyline complete with plumes of smoke, with the caption “PROTECTING NATURAL RESOURCES AND BUILDING A CLEAN ENERGY SUPERPOWER”?

Holey Schmoley, Kady et al…are you all being deliberately ignorant or are you missing the point just for kicks?

Can you imagine if the NRA said they were spending $150,000 to defeat three (!!!) Liberal candidates and openly supporting Conservatives? The hue and cry about evil American organizations trying to usurp the democratic process would be unbelievable.

At the end of the day – that’s what this group is doing – by targeting three candidates, they are WAAAAY exceeding the Elections Act for expenditures by a third party per riding.

Secondly, I agree with madeyoulook – not cool for an American organization to be trying to influence the democratic process in Canada. If I was a voter in one of these three ridings I’d be mightily upset.

Finally, LeslieE – I don’t know what you’re definition of a “shadowy foreign organization” is, but AVAAZ.ca’s mailing address on their website says they are located 857 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A.

That’s about 720km from the corner of Bank and Queen…practically right around the corner. Might not be shadowy, but certainly foreign.

Wow, Kady! I never cease to be amazed at how the rabble can get roused in the Comments to the ITQ blog. More importantly, nice one with the Alice in Wonderland reference. Oh, my ears and whiskers, indeed!

I am surprised- still- at the lengths the Conservatives go on forums like this to demonstrate their thin skinned reactions and warped view… ‘this (slight and silly) issue didn’t get enough attention’ when it’s engative for the their opponents and ‘why aren’t we talking about the real issues’ when it’s negative for them.

Another trend I am begginning to despise is when the Conservative Crybabies trot out “gotcha journalism” when their opponents reveal something… look it up people. The Liberals, NDP and Greens aren’t journalists for starters… isn’t it time you guys packed up your toys and cried all the way home?

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